"Father, has there
ever been any discord between You and Me? Then why should these who are Yours
and Mine disagree now?"
As soon as Christ
finished His sermon He went to prayer for His disciples. Unity and peace was
the legacy He wished so much to leave with them, and this was the request He
now asked God to give them: "Holy Father, keep through your own name those
whom you hast given me John 17:11. And then He added "that they may be
one, as we are." It is as if He had asked, "Father, has there ever
been any discord between You and Me? Then why should these who are Yours and
Mine disagree now?" Again, Christ continues to plead hard for the same
mercy, not because it was so hard to wrest this blessing from God but because
His desire for His people's unity and love was for their sakes. Notice also
that Jesus did not speak a word for His own life while He redoubled His prayer
for this unity. How can we thus miss its value?
He told His
children what they must look for at the world's hand-- all kinds of
tribulation. Yet He did not pray so much for their immunity from suffering as
He did against contentions amongst them. He knew that if His saints could agree
in compassion, this heavenly fire of love would quench the flames of their
persecutors' fire, or at least the terror of them. In a word, saints who live
in strife and contention are sinning against the strong prayers, which Christ
Himself uttered on their behalf.
The price Christ
paid for peace was great. Just as Jesus went from preaching peace to pulling
down peace from heaven by prayer, so He went from praying about it to paying
for it, but His prayers were not the petitions of a beggar, as ours are. He
prayed that God would give Him only what He had paid for. And He was on His way
to the place of payment, Calvary, where His blood was the price He willingly
laid down for peace. Now this was principally our peace with God but Christ had
this other peace in mind also-- love among the brethren.”
”Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete Armour Daily Readings
in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell.
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